Accidents | Cambria County | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Storage
Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking
Equitrans Midstream (formerly EQT Midstream) owns the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, in Pennsylvania. Since Nov. 6th, one of the wells at the Rager Mountain area (a depleted conventional well drilled in 1965) has been leaking methane. Residents living in the area were first alerted to the leak by a very loud hissing or roaring sound, and the odor of natural gas. The smell (hydrogen sulfide) persists. Equitrans is trying to fix the leak and is making progress, but gas continues to escape between two of the well’s casings.
Read More “Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking”
Earlier this year, Equitrans Midstream announced it had filed a new pipeline expansion project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
EQT has sued its own (former) law firm, Baker Botts, and one of the partners at the firm, for allegedly giving the company bad advice with respect to the Hammerhead Pipeline gathering system owned by Equitrans Midstream (EQT’s former subsidiary). The lawsuit seeks at least $1 million in damages. Baker Botts is based in Texas, so the lawsuit was filed in the 61st District Court in Harris County, TX. Hammerhead is a $555 million, approximately 190-mile gathering system created by Equitrans to gather EQT’s production in southwest PA and haul it (64 miles) to Mobley, WV, where it will connect with the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and EQT’s Ohio Valley Connector pipeline (see 
Yesterday Equitrans Midstream, the builder and majority owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, issued its third quarter 2022 update. The big news (for us) was that Thomas F. Karam, CEO of Equitrans, said that if the 95% complete MVP is going to get finished, it’s probably going to take an act of Congress to do it. The same three clown judges (our words) of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals are signaling they will continue to block MVP, says Karam. In contrast to the clouds over MVP, yesterday’s update shared a bit of good news for a second Equitrans project.
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject another water permit granted by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection to cross streams and rivers and swamps to finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals against the project. All three are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects.
This is, indeed, a sad day. Last Thursday, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP), which is majority owned by and is operated by Equitrans Midstream Corp., filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss eminent domain proceedings against landowner holdouts in North Carolina for land needed to build an extension of MVP into the state, called MVP Southgate. An Equitrans spokesman said the company hasn’t given up on the Southgate extension. We don’t believe it for a New York minute. We’ve seen this movie before when PennEast Pipeline canceled eminent domain, first in Pennsylvania (see 
So what happens now that Joe Manchin’s plan to get his fellow Democrats to vote for a bill to finish up the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a “permitting reform” bill, is dead (see 
We’ll say it right up front: We told you so. From the beginning, when U.S. Senator Joe Manchin announced he had sold out the country and would vote in favor of the horrible (misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act in return for a promise from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to pass a “permitting reform” bill that guarantees to finish the stalled (95% complete) Mountain Valley Pipeline, we told you it was a bad deal (see 
A small group of landowners in southwestern Virginia who have lost all of their previous attempts to block Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from crossing their property have made one last-ditch effort to fundamentally change the laws of the entire country to prevent this one pipeline. The landowners, obviously using Big Green money, have appealed their losing case to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the high court to hear their case against FERC’s (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) right to delegate its eminent domain power to a private pipeline company–in this case to MVP.
Joe Manchin, U.S. Senator from West Virginia (now wildly unpopular in his home state) continues to have a tough time sealing the deal on a permitting reform bill that will help the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) get done. Manchin traded his integrity away by voting to approve the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (a Big Green giveaway) in return for a vote on a bill to streamline the permitting of oil and gas projects like (and including) MVP. The Dems snookered Manchin into voting for the IRA with big promises, but now they don’t want to vote for his permitting bill, breaking those promises. Manchin needs help, and he’s turning to the oil and gas industry, hoping we will pressure Republican House and Senate members into helping him out. Don’t hold your breath, Joe.
Another update on the uphill battle Joe Manchin faces in getting his “side deal” legislation passed that will help Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) get done. Manchin agreed to vote for the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in return for a “permitting reform” bill, to be voted on in September, as the price for his vote. We told you it was a bad deal for many reasons–one of which is that Manchin may never get his vote. On Friday, 72 Democrat members of the House of Representatives signed a letter (copy below) to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer opposing the Manchin “side deal” legislation. Yeah, it didn’t but a few weeks for the Dems to welsh on their deal with Manchin. It appears that Manchin got rolled.